CEDAW/C/62/D/53/2013 international protection needs of religious minorities from Pakistan, which highlight that women from the Christian minority are in danger of gender -specific violence and that “violent anti-Christian attacks reportedly occur throughout the country and in many instances, the authorities are reportedly unable or unwilling to protect the lives of Christians or to bring perpetrators of such violence to justice”. 19 The Committee also recalls that gender-related asylum claims may intersect with other proscribed grounds of discrimination, including ethnicity and religion. 9.6 In the present case, the Committee considers that the author has been subjected to gender-based violence in Pakistan, given that she was attacked, either because she was a woman living on her own and working at a beauty salon, which was perceived as “immoral” by her community, or because she married against the wishes of her husband’s family and her family, or both. In that connection , the Committee recalls paragraph 50 of its general recommendation No. 32, according to which States parties should institute gender-sensitive procedural safeguards in asylum procedures to ensure that women asylum seekers are able to present their cases on an equal basis with men and without discrimination. States parties should take into account that the threshold for accepting asylum applications should be measured not against the probability, but against the reasonable likelihood that the claimant has a well-founded fear of persecution or that she would be exposed to persecution upon her return. In the present case, the Committee therefore considers that the author has sufficiently substantiated that, if returned to Pakistan, she would be at risk of being subjected to serious forms of gender-based violence. 9.7 The Committee also recalls its concluding observations on Pakistan, in which it expressed concern about the persistence of patriarchal attitudes and deep -rooted stereotypes concerning women’s roles and responsibilities that discriminate against women and perpetuate their subordination within the family and society, all of which has recently been exacerbated by the influence of non-State actors in the State party. In that connection, the Committee recalls that qisas and diyat ordinances continue to be applied to offences committed in the name of so-called honour, resulting in perpetrators being given legal concessions and/or being pardoned and not being prosecuted and punished (see CEDAW/C/PAK/CO/4, para. 21) according to the provisions of the Criminal Code. It is reported that 70 per cent of perpetrators of those kinds of crimes go unpunished. 20 9.8 In conclusion, the Committee recalls that, under international human rights law, the non-refoulement principle imposes a duty on States to refrain from returning a person to a jurisdiction in which he or she may face serious violations of human rights, that the right to life and the right not to be subjected to torture or ill-treatment are implicitly covered by the Convention, and that States parties are under an obligation not to extradite, deport, expel or otherwise remove a person from their territory to the territory of another State whe re there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk of irreparable harm. In the present case, the Committee is of the view that there are substantial grounds for considering __________________ 19 20 14/16 See the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) eligibility guidelines for assessing the international protection needs of religious minorities from Pakistan, 14 May 2012, pp. 25-30. United Kingdom, Home Office, Country Information Guidance, Pakistan: Women. Available from www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/ 331642/ Pakistan_CIG.Women.2014.07.16.v1.0.pdf. See also para. 7.4. 15-21603